Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein has claimed that the Northern Ireland peace
process is at risk after a Loyalist parade led to an outbreak of rioting in
Belfast.

The Deputy First Minister, a former member of the IRA, blamed the Orange Order for disturbances which resulted in serious violence and left dozens of police officers injured after they came under attack with rocks and other weapons.

Members of the Royal Black Institution have now apologised to the congregation of a Roman Catholic Church in north Belfast where band members ignored a ruling not to play provocative music during a march.

Protests by the nationalist community about the band's behaviour were met with retaliation from Loyalist mobs, resulting in three nights of rioting.

Mr McGuinness claimed that the Orange Order and Unionist politicians had tacitly encouraged Loyalist bands to defy orders from the Parades Commission, which was set up to defuse tensions around the summer marching season.

He described the riots, which police responded to with plastic bullets and water cannon, as a "terrible display of bigotry and sectarianism," adding that if Loyalists did not “abide by the rule of law” they would be “sowing the seeds of future conflict.”

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After a warning by Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr that police officers would be killed unless politicians stopped “posturing” and resolved the parades issue, Mr McGuinness and Peter Robinson, the DUP First Minister, took part in talks about the riots.

Mr McGuinness told The Times: “If these people are not prepared to abide by these determinations [of the Parades Commission], they are sowing the seeds for future conflict in our society.”

Mr Robinson added: “There’s a common desire to see an end to the violence."

The Carlisle Circus area of Belfast was quiet last night for the first time this week as religious leaders held a prayer vigil calling for peace.

It emerged yesterday that some of the rioters had used social media websites such as Facebook to organise the violence.

During court hearings for a number of suspected rioters, lawyers claimed that youths had joined the disturbances after arranging a night of violence on Facebook.

Declan Quinn, a barrister for a 17-year-old suspect, told Belfast Youth Court: "These things go on Facebook, they all talk to each other, they get excited and they end up down at a place they definitely shouldn't be."

Later at the same court, as he spared a 15-year-old suspect jail, District Judge George Conner told him: "Tempted as we are to make an example of you so that can go out on Facebook we are going to give you a chance.

"If you receive a message from any of your friends or anybody you don't know saying there's rioting going on you ignore it."

There had been fears that the riots would be followed by even more serious disturbances later this month when the Orange Order holds a major rally in Belfast.

But Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly described the apology by the Royal Black Institution as: "a step in the right direction," raising hope that tensions could be lowered before the rally on September 29.

In a statement, the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, which has also been accused of orchestrating the trouble, blamed the Parades Commission for the violence.

William Farr, sovereign grand master of the Royal Black Institution, said: "We have always had good lines of communication with the Roman Catholic Church and we would intend to continue to maintain and consolidate these, away from the public gaze.

"The sense of injustice and hurt felt by the members of the Royal Black Institution is focused on the Parades Commission and its irrational and often irresponsible determinations. The Royal Black Institution is founded on Christian principles and all of our processions are to and from an act of worship.

"Our institution is determined to play its full part in civic society and make Northern Ireland a peaceful and prosperous part of the United mKingdom where cultural diversity is respected."